Government
The List of Countries That Will Legalize Marijuana Before the US Gets Longer and Longer
Many people would agree that the United States federal policy is far behind the American mindset and, perhaps, even the global psyche as regards cannabis acceptance and legalization. Policies that govern cannabis in the United States have been quite trendy in mainstream media. But most often than not, the lack of concrete actions on the part of the U.S. federal government on cannabis legalization is making the headlines.
Be it the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act facing oblivion or a powerful open letter to President Joe Biden from his closest associates calling for the revision of federal cannabis laws; it is evident that the U.S. Federal policy on cannabis is not visionary.
Meanwhile, other nations and states are taking bold steps regarding cannabis legalization and have achieved significant results in the last decade. Therefore, as things stand, it won’t be out of place to affirm that America’s federal policy is lagging behind the global cannabis stance as the country continues to take a timid approach to cannabis. Canada, the neighbor to the North, made cannabis legal at the Federal level years ago and has a full-fledged recreational and medicinal marijuana market.
While the U.S. government is taking a slow and timid approach regarding cannabis legalization, other countries seem to be addressing the issue head-on. Therefore it begs the question: what reasons have other nations and their individual states found to decriminalize and legalize cannabis? In contrast, the U.S.U.S. has been unable to establish a concrete rationale. Even strong US ally, Germany, has moved to legalize recreational and medicinal cannabis in the past 12 months causing a stir of legality issues in the European block.
Mexico
Mexico, one of the closest neighbours of the United States, bordering America to the south, decriminalized and legalized cannabis at the federal level in 2021. Without diving deep into why the Mexican government legalized cannabis, the public response has been that cannabis legalization is in the hopes of reducing violent crimes.
In a wide margin vote of 8 – 3, the Supreme Court of Mexico decriminalized cannabis in 2021. As a result, cannabis is now legalized for cultivation and use only for medical purposes. According to CNN, the country decided after cannabis proponents pushed for decriminalizing cannabis to reduce violent crimes.
Even though drug-driven violence was not the primary and only reason for the decision reached by the high court, it is a reason worth considering, given justification for policy change can stem from all kinds of places.
Thailand
While the United States continues to debate cannabis, Thailand has taken the giant step in becoming the first Asian country to legalize medical use of cannabis. The Asian government has clearly stated that public use of cannabis is still very much prohibited, but it has legalized cannabis use for medical purposes.
While Thailand only legalized cannabis for medical use, the Asian country can still position itself and rightly use its present stance on cannabis to promote tourism in the country. According to National Public Radio, Thailand’s primary aim is to make a dent in the industry for medical cannabis. The article also explains that even though only a few neighboring countries have legalized marijuana, Thailand has positioned itself to make the best of the present opportunities. This is especially true since Thailand already has a well-established tourism industry, and its natural tropical climate is more than ideal for cultivating cannabis.
In addition, Thailand will also be pardoning and freeing inmates currently serving non-violent cannabis-related crimes. While this seems relatively easy for Thailand to achieve, U.S. lawmakers are still pushing for the cannabis decriminalization bill.
Malta
Thailand isn’t the only country that has made international headlines as regards cannabis legalization. Similar to Thailand, Malta also took the bold step to legalize marijuana in 2021, making it the first European country to do so. Even though Malta has not inaugurated any cannabis dispensaries or lounges, the country has legalized cannabis cultivation and use within its territories.
The reason for Malta’s cannabis legalization is quite similar to that of Mexico. According to the New York Times, the Maltese government explained that the new statute aims to combat illegal and criminal drug trafficking while also ending criminalizing Maltese for using cannabis.
Looking at the trend in Mexico and now Malta, it seems that regulating and legalizing cannabis instead of waging war on the illegal criminal market is a driving factor in many countries that have decriminalized and legalized cannabis before the United States.
Switzerland
Switzerland is one of the countries that just recently legalized the medical use of cannabis after lifting its ban on cannabis as of August 2022. This latest development by the Swiss government also allows for the export of medical marijuana products. One of the primary reasons for the legalization of medical cannabis in Switzerland is the exponential growth in medical cannabis popularity. Another important reason is the heightened administrative ramble that developed due to the increase in medical cannabis popularity.
According to Forbes, the Federal Council duly justified the county’s latest stance on medical cannabis legalization. The Federal council affirmed that there’d been an increase in the demand for authorizations in the last years. This includes a slowed-down medical treatment and a significant administrative burden. Only in 2019, the ministry of health issued roughly 3,000 special permissions.
Conclusion
Many factors are responsible for why other countries are making significant progress regarding cannabis legalization while the United States slowly follows far behind. The justifications among these countries vary from hoping to reduce drug-related crimes and violence to boost medical tourism in their countries.
While the United States presents lots of struggles to pick from to push cannabis legalization at the federal level, a single strong-enough cause has not been chosen. Without this, it will be difficult for the United States to transition into a cannabis post-prohibition era.
However, as things stand, the move for cannabis legalization has gained massive support in states like Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and North Carolina — but while the idea of cannabis legalization is popular, it seems not to be a significant priority to many voters. Notwithstanding, as the cannabis industry continues to develop, pressure is bound to mount on lawmakers to end federal cannabis prohibition.
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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